1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to clothes dryers and, more particularly to an idler device for a drive belt of a clothes dryer.
2. Description of the Related Art
An idler device or belt tensioning assembly is employed in a clothes dryer to provide tension to a continuous or endless drive belt which extends around a drive pulley and a rotatable dryer drum. The idler assembly provides sufficient tension to the belt so that various loads tumbled in the drum do not produce belt slippage. It is important that belt slippage be avoided because it results in a high rate of belt wear or failure. The idler assembly typically has a resilient element to compensate for stretching of the belt over extended use.
Previous idler devices have included one or more idler pulleys mounted on various support members by various spacers and mechanical fasteners. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,300,293, 4,407,077, and 4,488,363 the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein in there entirety by reference. It will be appreciated that the more complex the construction of the idler device becomes the more expensive the cost of manufacture for a clothes dryer becomes. It will also be appreciated that both reducing the number of components in a particular idler device and having common components in clothes dryers having differently configured idler devices, results in realizable cost savings. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved idler device having a simple construction, a reduced number of components, and common components for a variety of clothes dryer configurations.